Phase I of Apollo 11 Coin Design Competition Nears End

A screen grab image of the U.S. Mint webpage describing the Apollo 11 coin design competition

Just a few days remain to submit an application to enter the competition to design Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Commemorative Coins. The event invites artists to design an image that is emblematic of the United States Space Program leading up to the first manned moon landing.

The deadline for Phase One of the contest ends Thursday, June 29. By that time, interested artists must submit their application and a digital portfolio with three to five samples of their work.

In celebration of the moon landing anniversary, the United States Mint in 2019 will produce and sell $5 gold coins, silver dollars, clad half-dollars, and 5-ounce $1 silver coins. These coins will feature a curved shape similar to the 2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame Baseball Commemorative Coins.

Members of the CFA, CCAC and stakeholders from NASA preferred these sets of reverse candidate designs for the 2019 Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Commemorative Coins. Coins of the program must be curved, similar to the 2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame Baseball Coins, so that their reverses are convex to more closely resemble the visor of Buzz Aldrin’s helmet as seen in a photo taken on the moon in 1969. The coins’ obverse design will be decided by a juried design competition.

The collection of coins will share the same obverse (heads) and reverse (tails) designs. Artists for the U.S. Mint have already produced candidate designs for the reverses. Those were recently reviewed by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee and Commission of Fine Arts. The design competition will decide the coins’ obverse design.

Key dates for the contest include:

Applications Open: May 1, 2017

Application Deadline: June 29, 2017

Artists Notified if Selected to Submit a Design: July 31, 2017

Submissions Must Be Received By: September 8, 2017

Winner Announced: 2018

Invited artists will be paid $500 for their work. The winning artist, with their design selected by the Secretary of the Treasury from the juried competition, will receive an additional $5,000 and have their initials appear on the coins.